STINK BUGS

Re: STINK BUGS

Sun Jul 03, 2016 2:29 pm

Your garden store can likely set you up with an insecticide that will take them out and be suitable for use on garden food plants. Its either that or sit out there and catch them and drop them in a bucket of water?

Re: STINK BUGS

The pheromone traps work really well! Our neighbor lets big trees grow on the fence line farthest away from our beds, and we hang the traps on that. It kills them by the hundreds.

The eggs are different colors depending on the kind of stink bug, the most common ones here are sort of this pearly green color, and they lay them on the undersides of the leaves of almost EVERY plant in the garden. Old makeup compact mirrors work well for looking under leaves with hurting your back. I roll them off into my soapy water. (I usually don't go out into the garden without a cup of soap water.)

We plant lots of marigolds and let our lettuce, herbs, radishes, and other plants go to flower out in the garden because they attract other bugs that prey on the stink bugs.

There are other stink bugs that actually eat stinkbugs!

If I see an adult stink bug, I toss it in My soap cup. It's sometimes challenging!

Re: STINK BUGS

Sun Jul 03, 2016 5:12 pm

Try a shop vac. You might be able to suck bugs off the plants and not damage the plants. I know you can spray them off with the garden hose but they come back. If you could spray them off then stray them into the mud they might die especially if you walk on them.

Once I had hornets in the ground near the garage door anytime we got too close we got stung. Several months later when it was dark I placed the shop vac suck hose next to the hornets hole then ran a long extension cord to the house. Next morning I turned the shop vac on every time a hornet tried to leave it got sucked up and every time a hornet returned it got sucked in. I let the vac run for 3 days. I poured sand in their hole until it was full. I left the shop vac in full sun for a week. When I opened up the shop vac it was 4" deep in dead hornets.

Re: STINK BUGS

Sun Jul 03, 2016 5:39 pm

If you get things covered BEFORE there are bugs and/or eggs on them, row cover keeps the bugs off.

You can spray with kaolin clay, which is just a barrier, keeps the bugs from laying eggs or piercing the fruit. The clay is harmless and washes off. You can spray with Neem oil. It is not a poison, it is just something like a hormone disrupter. You spray it on the leaves and once it dries, when leaf eaters ingest it with the leaves, it stops them from feeding and eventually kills them, but not immediately. To be sure not to harm honeybees, don't spray when the bees are active (it will clog up their spiracles so they can't breathe if sprayed directly on them) and don't spray it on blossoms the bees will be coming to.

Encourage beneficials/ predators to your garden. Stinkbugs actually have many natural enemies. You can limit their numbers by attracting these beneficial creatures to the area. Some of the most common enemies of stinkbugs include: Minute pirate bugs Praying mantis Lacewings Ladybugs Parasitic flies Spiders Toads Birds

When I had stinkbugs coming in to my house for the winter, I made a trap for them, by setting up a big bowl of soapy water, in a clear glass bowl. Shine a light directly on it so the water glows. At night, they are attracted to the light and come and drown themselves in the soap water.

Re: STINK BUGS

Mon Jul 04, 2016 2:02 pm

I feel your pain! I had an invasion of stink bugs take over my tomatoes in 2014 and nearly ruined them. I had never dealt with them ever before. One method I used was a bucket with soapy water and shake them into the bucket. However, I couldn't get their population down because I garden in a community garden and no one was really taken care of them so it was suggested I used kaolin clay or Surround as suggested above my comment. If you can get your hands on one or the other, either works well. I tried both. Surround is kaolin clay with a few added ingredients and finer particles. I found some at my local feed store and a big bag has really lasted me. It is annoying because it covers your fruit and for me has never really rubbed off well but since I peel my tomatoes anyway it isn't really been an issue. It is drying and scratchy to the touch and the reason bugs find it so annoying and avoid. I put some in a hand sprayer and water and spray every few weeks. Worked well and saved my remaining tomatoes in 2014. I used in 2015 and only had 10 tomatoes with stink bug damage in an area I missed spraying. The only thing to be cautious of when using kaolin/surround is to not breathe in the fine particles, like DE, it can be inhaled in the lungs. I just use a mask when placing it in the sprayer. Doesn't seem to be a problem when spraying due to the water. I am actually going to be spraying it on as a preventative in the next week or so.